Tremble
by Mavra
Summary: hard to describe just read


I do not own Harry Potter, in fact I own nothing not even myself. That honor belongs  
  
to my cat who graciously allows me to type between feeding and petting him. And of   
  
course J.K.R. owns Harry Potter.  
  
"When I first saw her walking on trembling legs to the schools sorting hat,  
  
I wasn't terribly impressed. She seemed to be all hair and eager little eyes. I  
  
could tell she was never going to be sorted into my house even if her parentage had  
  
allowed it, so after hearing the hat call out her house, a house I despised I   
  
promptly forgot all about her. At least I forgot about her until her first potions   
  
class. I believe she almost came off her seat in her effort to show me she knew the   
  
answers I was throwing at another member of the class. Of course I didn't call on   
  
her as the whole exercise was intended to humiliate the Potter boy and no-one was   
  
actually supposed to know these answers. At that point I believed that she was   
  
trying to show off how much she knew and didn't see her as having a genuine thirst   
  
for knowledge that came later.   
  
I might have been easier on her, well as easy as I get for those out of my   
  
own house, if she had not joined with those two foolish boys. At the time I was   
  
unaware of why that had upset me but as it was I was harsher than ever to her and   
  
the remainder of the so called "dream team" I watched for two years as those boys   
  
seemed to constantly strive to hide her light and make her more like them. I saw   
  
her beginning to believe them when they treated her as though she was less than they  
  
because of her lust for books and knowledge. I watched as they put themselves in   
  
danger and never acknowledged where her intelligence had saved them.   
  
By the end of her third year I knew I was reluctantly fascinated. Not only   
  
was she the only one to actually realize what I was doing when I assigned the essay   
  
on werewolves she was loyal enough to her friends and trusting enough to keep her   
  
silence. I know without her assistance they would never have been able to free both   
  
that mutt and the birdbrain, not that I was happy about her assistance but I did   
  
admire her resourcefulness. By the end of this year I truly saw no difference in   
  
her outward appearance as I was focused on trying to find the limits of that oh so   
  
impressive brain of hers.   
  
It wasn't until her fourth year that I realized how truly stunning she could  
  
be. I and almost every other male in the castle watched with carefully concealed   
  
wonder for the most part as she appeared in great hall on the arm of that boorish   
  
boy. Her friends were stunned and the girls watched with narrowed eyes as she took   
  
the first turn on the dance floor. I could see the Weasley boy among other   
  
reevaluating her as something other than the school brain. I think it was then I   
  
determined to have her for my own, not that I suddenly changed in my attitude towards  
  
her in anyway. No it was merely a decision and the beginnings of a plan to make her  
  
mine.   
  
When she returned in her fifth year I could see that the beauty she had   
  
shown then the year before had been forgotten and they once again tried to induce   
  
her into fitting the status quo, not realizing that to force her to conform would   
  
be as putting a rare orchid among common weeds. Even surrounded by chaff her true   
  
beauty would shine though. It was not her outward appearance that called so to me   
  
although beneath the hair she deigned to tame she was a beauty, no it was her mind   
  
still shining as bright as the rarest of jewels despite all efforts to dim her glory.  
  
I was enraged when Umbridge dared to hurt her and felt vindicated when she got her   
  
just desserts. Being left to a centaur's tender mercy was nothing I would have   
  
happen to anyone I cared about. But her, I was only disappointed when they brought   
  
her back to us.   
  
It was during that summer that I realized I had to have her in my life more   
  
so than it could be at school. It was truly a shame that the death eaters chose to   
  
attack her family as a lesson while she was away with the Weasley's. I of course was  
  
filled with guilt that I had received no warning and thus could not get them to   
  
safety and offered as the only way to assuage that guilt my guardianship of her   
  
until her schooling was complete. I believe that Dumbledore would not have granted   
  
me that pleasure had he not seen how, truly, wretched I felt. But as it was I had   
  
what I desired, her, in my house and at my table. It took her some time to begin to   
  
fully trust me and look upon me as a friend but I had the time to spare. I offered   
  
to continue her education and she fair leaped at the chance. That first summer I   
  
taught her little more than my chosen subject and began opening her eyes to how our   
  
world really worked. I chose her clothing and dressing her in the finest cloth,   
  
things that not only looked well on her but felt like a lovers touch upon her skin.   
  
Even after school had begun again I made time for her to visit and kept up   
  
out private schooling. Don't think that I ever touched her in a way that was not   
  
appropriate, after all she was very young still and I wanted more than merely her   
  
body. I wanted her heart, mind, and soul as well. I slowly began to enlighten her   
  
on how her friends treated her, ignoring all that bright about her until they needed  
  
her help, which she always gave unselfishly until she began to turn away and find   
  
her comfort in my gentle hugs and soothing tones.   
  
By the end of her last summer of Hogwarts she had turned to me for all   
  
things knowing I would never force her to be less than she was, indeed I would   
  
strive for her to push herself constantly forward in her quest for knowledge. She   
  
had begun to see me as more than her friend, her teacher, but I would allow nothing   
  
between us until she had graduated. She accepted that and strove to please me not   
  
knowing that her mere presence did that. I knew that I could never have her fully   
  
while this war raged so I stopped straddling the fence and helped potter   
  
unreservedly until, finally it was over. They accounted me a hero never knowing   
  
that without her it might have gone the other way.   
  
After her graduation she informed her friends of her decision to stay with   
  
me and while not accepting it or I wholeheartedly, trusted her enough to let her   
  
come to me. After all I was one of the heroes of the last battle. We wed and to this  
  
day she has never stopped learning, just what I'm teaching my lovely wife now   
  
though, really shouldn't be said.   
  
AN: well? What did you think? Its just a one shot but almost tore itself through my   
  
fingers and onto the page. Anything you wish to say about this is welcome. 


End file.
